The latest Planet of the Apes movie is pretty good in my opinion and I think there's an interesting tie-in with social psych.
Our hero, Caesar, was raised with humans without ever having seen another ape. There's an interesting scene where his owners let take him outdoors for a run and afterwards they put his collar back on to take him home. On the way to the car they run into a couple who are walking their dog who is also on a collar. The dog barks and their owners pull on his chain and tell the dog to "come!". Ceasar's owner then pull on his chain and tell him to "come" as well. Ceasar is clearly upset and later asks (with sign language), "Am I a pet?" His human owners tell him that he's not a pet and then take him to the laboratory to show him what other apes are like. Eventually he winds up in a facility for primates. The rest of the movie is about how Ceasar helps the other lowly primates to rise up. Caesar knows he's not human, doesn't want to be a "pet", yet his inescapable social identity - that of being an ape - also isn't very appealing. Apes are treated poorly and are clearly second-class citizens. All of this leads to you feeling badly about yourself. So what do you do? You have to raise the status of your social group by, of course, stealing a drug that makes them all smart, take over leadership of the group, and then lead your group to rise up and be free. There might also be some interesting tie-ins to leadership, in-group/out-group and group influence in the movie as well. Michael A. Britt, Ph.D. [email protected] http://www.ThePsychFiles.com Twitter: mbritt --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=15095 or send a blank email to leave-15095-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
